China's online censorship faces growing public pushback

Taipei [Taiwan], December 7 : China's extensive digital surveillance and censorship system has begun to show signs of collapse, according to Taiwan's Mainland Affairs Council (MAC).

In its latest Quarterly Report on the Situation in China, the council said that China's "digital authoritarian model" has reached a breaking point and is now caught in a self-perpetuating loop of suppression and speculation, as reported by The Taipei Times.

According to The Taipei Times, the MAC cited the suspicious death of Chinese actor Alan Yu in Beijing on September 11 as a striking example of the growing cracks in China's online control regime. Authorities swiftly labelled Yu's death as an "accidental fall after drinking," but the explanation was widely doubted by the public.

Circulating videos, audio clips, and online rumours connecting Yu to senior Chinese Communist Party (CCP) leader Cai Qi only deepened public suspicion. In response, Chinese censors moved quickly, removing posts, deleting discussions, and forbidding further inquiries.

The Cyberspace Administration of China also summoned executives from major platforms such as Sina Weibo, Douyin, and Kuaishou, imposing fines and demanding tighter monitoring of trending topics to ensure what it called a "clean and bright cyberspace."

According to the Mainland Affairs Council, this incident highlighted a fundamental flaw in China's digital control strategy: the more authorities censor, the more citizens doubt the official narrative. Citing an article by researcher Kevin Hsu in Foreign Policy, the MAC said that "censorship itself has become the story," fuelling conspiracy theories and undermining trust in state institutions, as cited by The Taipei Times.

The council's report also emphasised the entertainment industry's lack of autonomy in China, where artists' reputations rise and fall based on political interests. The outcry over Yu's death, it said, showed that the CCP's aggressive censorship has backfired, intensifying public curiosity and resentment instead of quelling it.

MAC warned that China's digital authoritarian system is now overextended, struggling to control a population increasingly adept at bypassing censorship and sharing forbidden content abroad, revealing deep vulnerabilities within China's propaganda apparatus, as reported by The Taipei Times.

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